Deborah Dunham
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Getty Images
jupiterimages
Jupiterimages
Getty Images
Getty Images
Getty Images
Deborah Dunham
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Dimitrios Kambouris, WireImage
Photo: jose goulao, flickr
"Is she really a she?" We all remember how that question was widely debated after South African runner, Caster Semenya, won the gold in the women's 800-meters at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in August. The rumors that started because some thought the athlete looked -- and ran, more like a man, subsequently put the gold medal in jeopardy. But Semenya's native sports ministry just announced that, yes indeed, she will be able to keep the medal.
In a statement on their web site, the South African Ministry of Sports and Recreation stated, "Because Caster has been found to be innocent of any wrong, she will retain her gold medal, retain her title of 800m World Champion and retain her prize money."
The ministry asked people to respect their decision. "We have also agreed with the IAAF that whatever scientific tests were conducted legally within the IAAF regulations will be treated as a confidential matter between patient and doctor. As such there will be no public announcement of what the panel of scientists has found. We urge all South Africans and other people to respect this professional ethical and moral way of doing things."
Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment
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When Gregg McBride stepped on the scale one day, he thought it was broken. He later discovered the "error" message it displayed did not mean it was broken after all -- it just didn't go over 450 pounds, which was how much Gregg weighed at the time.
The 36-year-old's struggle with weight began in early childhood when his parents told him he couldn't eat junk food. But instead of setting a healthy example, this strict diet only hurt Gregg, so much so that he would steal money from his father's wallet to buy junk food and secretly scarf it down. "They thought they were helping," Gregg told the Today Show. "But in hindsight, I can see that they created a forbidden fruit. I ate junk food like it was going out of style."
Gregg's food addiction continued to get worse over the next 30 years. He was consuming nearly 9,000 calories a day on a menu that included soda for breakfast; several cartons of Chinese food and milkshakes for lunch; and a family-of-four-size meal from a fast-food restaurant for dinner, with a whole bag of cookies for dessert.
Despite Gregg's many attempts to lose the weight, nothing stuck ."I tried every diet out there: the wacky ones, the public ones, the dangerous ones," he said. "But I just kept getting bigger and bigger."
Gregg even tried a liquid fast where he didn't consume solid food for weeks. But when he spotted a half-eaten bag of potato chips in his trash, he stared at it for an hour before finally reaching in and devouring it.
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